Mary Westmacott | Agatha Christie Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit The name Mary Westmacott was one chosen by Christie with great care. Mary was Christie's own middle name, and Westmacott the name of some family relatives. Mary Westmacott is a distinct person from Agatha Christie. In 1950, when she was invited to a celebration for her work, she quipped, "Thank you for asking me to meet Agatha Christie. If you don't mind, I am bringing my old friend Mary Westmacott with me." The Westmacott novels were simply written for "fun," to put it loosely. Christie had said in her autobiography that she wanted "to do something that is not my proper job," i.e., writing detective novels. She said she wrote the first, Giant's Bread, with a "rather guilty feeling" and enjoyed the project she had undertaken. Although Mary Westmacott was revealed to be Agatha Christie in 1949, it didn't stop her from publishing two more Westmacott novels, still under her pseudonym. This is another affirmation that Agatha could write more than just great detective stories.

Structure Edit The focus of the Mary Westmacott novel's is human relationship. There's even a hint of autobiographical elements that Christie inserts. There are several themes, to briefly mention a few: possessiveness, failure in human perception, nature and the inequality of love, self-evaluation, and awareness of one's and others' feelings. In the books there are even contemplation of suicide and supernatural elements. Hick's Essay Edit To celebrate Agatha Christie’s Centenary, Rosalind Hicks , Agatha Christie's daughter, wrote an essay on the Westmacott novels. We have reproduced this here: “As early as 1930, my mother wrote her first novel using the name “Mary Westmacott”. These novels, six in all, were a complete departure from the usual sphere of Agatha Christie “Queen of Crime”. The name Mary Westmacott was chosen after some thought. Mary was Agatha’s second name and Westmacott the name of some distant relatives. She succeeded in keeping her identity as Mary Westmacott unknown for nearly twenty years and the books, much to her pleasure, were modestly successful.

Giant’s Bread was first published in 1930 and was to be the first of six books under this nom de plume. It is a novel about Vernon Deyre, his childhood, his family, the two women he loved and his obsession with music. My mother had some experience of the musical world having been trained as a singer and a concert pianist in Paris when she was young. She was interested in modern music, and tried to express the feelings and ambitions of the singer and the composer. There is a lot about childhood and the First World War taken from her own experiences. Her publishers, Collins, were not very enthusiastic about this change of direction in her work as she was at this time becoming quite well known in the world of detective fiction. They needn’t have worried. In 1930 she also published The Mysterious Mr. Quin and, Murder at the Vicarage – Miss Marple’s first book. During the next ten years there followed no less than sixteen full length Poirot stories including such titles as Murder on the Orient Express , The A.B.C. Murders , Death on the Nile , and Appointment with Death .

Her second Mary Westmacott book Unfinished Portrait was published in 1934. It also relied a lot on her own experiences and early life. In 1944 she published Absent in the Spring . She wrote in her autobiography : “Shortly after that, I wrote the one book that has satisfied me completely. It was a new Mary Westmacott, the book that I had always wanted to write, that had been clear in my mind. It was the picture of a woman with a complete image of herself, of what she was, but about which she was completely mistaken. Through her own actions, her own feelings and thoughts, this would be revealed to the reader. She would be, as it were, continually meeting herself, not recognising herself, but becoming increasingly uneasy. What brought about this revelation would be the fact that for the first time in her life she was alone – completely alone – for four or five days.

“I wrote that book in three days flat…I went straight through…I don’t think I have ever been so tired…I didn’t want to change a word and although I don’t know myself of course what it is really like, it was written as I meant to write it, and that is the proudest joy and author can have.” I think Absent in the Spring combines many talents from Agatha Christie, the detective story writer. It is very well constructed, compulsive reading. You get a wonderfully clear picture of all the family from the thoughts of one woman alone in the desert – really quite a triumph. In 1947 she wrote The Rose and the Yew Tree . This was a great favourite of hers and of mine too. It is a haunting and beautiful story. Strangely enough Collins didn’t like it and as they hadn’t been very kind about any of the Mary Westmacotts, she took it to Heinemann who published this and her last two books – A Daughter’s a Daughter (1952) and The Burden (1956). The Mary Westmacott books have been described as romantic novels but I don’t think that is really a fair assessment.

They are not ‘love stories’ in the general sense of the term, and they certainly have no happy endings. They are, I believe, about love in some of its most powerful and destructive forms. The possessive love of a mother for her child, or a child for its mother in both Giant’s Bread and Unfinished Portrait. The battle between the widowed mother and her grown-up daughter in A Daughter’s a Daughter . A girl’s obsession with her younger sister in The Burden and the closeness of love to hate – the Burden in this story being the weight of one person’s love on someone else. Mary Westmacott never enjoyed the same critical acclaim as Agatha Christie , but the books achieved some recognition in a minor way and she was pleased when people enjoyed them – she was able to fulfil her wish to write something different.” Agatha Christie (Author of And Then There Were None) Mystery , Crime , Thriller Influences edit data Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan . Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time. She wrote eighty crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and several other books.

Her books have sold roughly four billion copies and have been translated into 45 languages. She is the creator of the two most enduring figures in crime literature-Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple-and author of The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theatre. Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1 Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan . Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time. She wrote eighty crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and several other books. Her books have sold roughly four billion copies and have been translated into 45 languages. She is the creator of the two most enduring figures in crime literature-Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple-and author of The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theatre. Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three.

The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha's senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880–1929), called Monty, ten years older than Agatha. During the First World War, she worked at a hospital as a nurse; later working at a hospital pharmacy, a job that influenced her work, as many of the murders in her books are carried out with poison. On Christmas Eve 1914 Agatha married Archibald Christie, an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps. The couple had one daughter, Rosalind Hicks. They divorced in 1928, two years after Christie discovered her husband was having an affair. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, came out in 1920. During this marriage, Agatha published six novels, a collection of short stories, and a number of short stories in magazines. In late 1926, Agatha's husband, Archie, revealed that he was in love with another woman, Nancy Neele, and wanted a divorce.

On 8 December 1926 the couple quarreled, and Archie Christie left their house Styles in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to spend the weekend with his mistress at Godalming, Surrey. That same evening Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving behind a letter for her secretary saying that she was going to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused an outcry from the public, many of whom were admirers of her novels. Despite a massive manhunt, she was not found for eleven days. In 1930, Christie married archaeologist Max Mallowan (Sir Max from 1968) after joining him in an archaeological dig. Their marriage was especially happy in the early years and remained so until Christie's death in 1976. In 1977, Mallowan married his longtime associate, Barbara Parker. Christie frequently used familiar settings for her stories. Christie's travels with Mallowan contributed background to several of her novels set in the Middle East. Other novels (such as And Then There Were None) were set in and around Torquay, where she was born.

Christie's 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express was written in the Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, the southern terminus of the railway. The hotel maintains Christie's room as a memorial to the author. The Greenway Estate in Devon, acquired by the couple as a summer residence in 1938, is now in the care of the National Trust. Christie often stayed at Abney Hall in Cheshire, which was owned by her brother-in-law, James Watts. She based at least two of her stories on the hall: the short story The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, which is in the story collection of the same name, and the novel After the Funeral. "Abney became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all the servants and grandeur which have been woven into her plots. During the Second World War, Christie worked in the pharmacy at University College Hospital of University College, London, where she acquired a knowledge of poisons that she put to good use in her post-war crime novels. To honour her many literary works, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1956 New Year Honours.

The next year, she became the President of the Detection Club. In the 1971 New Year Honours she was promoted Dame Commander o ...more About - Agatha Christie The Mary Westmacotts The Mary Westmacotts Written under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, these novels gave my grandmother the chance to better explore the human psychology she was so intrigued by, freed from the expectations of her mystery fans. My mother, Rosalind, called them “bitter-sweet stories about love” and this piece was written by her for the Centernary celebrations in 1990. “As early as 1930, my mother wrote her first novel using the name Mary Westmacott. These novels, six in all, were a complete departure from the usual sphere of Agatha Christie Queen of Crime. The name Mary Westmacott was chosen after some thought. Mary was Agatha’s second name and Westmacott the name of some distant relatives. She succeeded in keeping her identity as Mary Westmacott unknown for nearly twenty years and the books, much to her pleasure, were modestly successful.

Giant’s Bread was first published in 1930 and was to be the first of six books under this nom de plume. It is a novel about Vernon Deyre, his childhood, his family, the two women he loved and his obsession with music. My mother had some experience of the musical world having been trained as a singer and a concert pianist in Paris when she was young. She was interested in modern music, and tried to express the feelings and ambitions of the singer and the composer. There is a lot about childhood and the First World War taken from her own experiences. Her publishers, Collins, were not very enthusiastic about this change of direction in her work as she was at this time becoming quite well known in the world of detective fiction. They needn’t have worried. In 1930 she also published The Mysterious Mr Quin and, Murder at the Vicarage – Miss Marple’s first book. During the next ten years there followed no less than sixteen full length Poirot stories including such titles as Murder on the Orient Express, The ABC Murders, Death on the Nile, and Appointment with Death. Her second Mary Westmacott book Unfinished Portrait was published in 1934.

It also relied a lot on her own experiences and early life. In 1944 she published Absent in the Spring . She wrote in her autobiography: “Shortly after that, I wrote the one book that has satisfied me completely. It was a new Mary Westmacott, the book that I had always wanted to write, that had been clear in my mind. It was the picture of a woman with a complete image of herself, of what she was, but about which she was completely mistaken. Through her own actions, her own feelings and thoughts, this would be revealed to the reader. She would be, as it were, continually meeting herself, not recognising herself, but becoming increasingly uneasy. What brought about this revelation would be the fact that for the first time in her life she was alone – completely alone – for four or five days.

“I wrote that book in three days flat…I went straight through…I don’t think I have ever been so tired…I didn’t want to change a word and although I don’t know myself of course what it is really like, it was written as I meant to write it, and that is the proudest joy and author can have.” I think Absent in the Spring combines many talents from Agatha Christie, the detective story writer. It is very well constructed, compulsive reading. You get a wonderfully clear picture of all the family from the thoughts of one woman alone in the desert – really quite a triumph. In 1947 she wrote The Rose and the Yew Tree . This was a great favourite of hers and of mine too. It is a haunting and beautiful story. Strangely enough Collins didn’t like it and as they hadn’t been very kind about any of the Mary Westmacotts, she took it to Heinemann who published this and her last two books – A Daughter’s a Daughter (1952) and The Burden (1956). The Mary Westmacott books have been described as romantic novels but I don’t think that is really a fair assessment.

They are not ‘love stories’ in the general sense of the term, and they certainly have no happy endings. They are, I believe, about love in some of its most powerful and destructive forms. The possessive love of a mother for her child, or a child for its mother in both Giant’s Bread and Unfinished Portrait . The battle between the widowed mother and her grown-up daughter in A Daughter’s a Daughter . A girl’s obsession with her younger sister in The Burden and the closeness of love to hate – the Burden in this story being the weight of one person’s love on someone else. Mary Westmacott never enjoyed the same critical acclaim as Agatha Christie, but the books achieved some recognition in a minor way and she was pleased when people enjoyed them – she was able to fulfil her wish to write something different.” Rosalind Hicks eBooks Name Mary - Search Books 0 0 For the band, see Agatha Christie (band). For the video game series, see Agatha Christie (video game series).

Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie DBE Born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller 15 September 1890 Torquay, Devon, England, UK Died 12 January 1976 (aged 85) Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, UK Resting place Church of St Mary, Cholsey, Oxfordshire, England Pen name Mary Westmacott Agatha Christie Occupation Novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet Genre Murder mystery, thriller, crime fiction, detective, romance Literary movement Golden Age of Detective Fiction Notable works Creation of characters Hercule Poirot and Miss (Jane) Marple, Murder On The Orient Express, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Murder at the Vicarage, Partners In Crime, The ABC Murders, And Then There Were None Spouse Archibald Christie (m. 1914; div. 1928) Sir Max Mallowan (m.

1930–76; her death)ChildrenRosalind Hicks (1919–2004)Website Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigations of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Parker Pyne, Harley Quin/Mr Satterthwaite, and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. She wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap.[1] [more] [Less] For Free Agatha Christie - I Write Like I Write Like Analyze your text Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays.

She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and more than 15 short story collections (especially those featuring Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple), and her successful West End plays. According to the Guinness Book of World Records , Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly four billion copies, and her estate claims that her works rank third, after those of William Shakespeare and the Bible, as the most widely published books. According to Index Translationum , Christie is the most translated individual author, with only the collective corporate works of Walt Disney Productions surpassing her. Her books have been translated into at least 103 languages. Agatha Christie published two autobiographies: a posthumous one covering childhood to old age; and another chronicling several seasons of archaeological excavation in Syria and Iraq with her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. The latter was published in 1946 with the title, Come, Tell Me How You Live.

Christie's stage play The Mousetrap holds the record for the longest initial run: it opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London on 25 November 1952 and as of 2012 is still running after more than 24,600 performances. In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's highest honour, the Grand Master Award, and in the same year Witness for the Prosecution was given an Edgar Award by the MWA for Best Play. Many of her books and short stories have been filmed, some more than once ( Murder on the Orient Express , Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan (Miller) (1890 - 1976) - Genealogy ex-husband's child About Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Christie (born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller) was the best selling mystery author of all time and the only writer to have created two major detectives, Poirot and Marple, as well as having written the longest-running play in the modern theater, The Mousetrap. She also wrote romance novels under the name Mary Westmacott.

The daughter of an American father and a British mother, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born at Torquay in the United Kingdom on September 15, 1890. Her family was comfortable, although not wealthy, and she was educated at home, with later study in Paris. In 1914 she was married to Col. Archibald Christie; the marriage produced one daughter. In 1920 Christie launched a career which made her the most popular mystery writer of all time. Her total output reached 93 books and 17 plays; she was translated into 103 languages (even more than Shakespeare); and her sales have passed the 400 million mark and are still going strong. It was in her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), that Christie introduced one of her two best-known detectives, Hercule Poirot, and his amanuensis, Captain Hastings. Her debt to the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is manifest in the books in which this pair appears.

Like Holmes, Poirot is a convinced and convincing spokesman for the human rational faculty (he places his faith in "the little grey cells"), uses his long-suffering companion as a sort of echo-chamber, and even has a mysterious and exotically-named brother who works for the government. Captain Hastings, like Dr. John Watson a retired military man, has much in common with his prototype: he is trusting, bumbling, and superingenuous, and by no means an intellectual. Yet occasionally he wins applause from the master by making an observation which by its egregious stupidity illuminates some corner previously dark in the inner recesses of the great mind. There is even a copy of Conan Doyle's ineffectual Inspector Lestrade in the person of Inspector Japp. While writing in imitation of Conan Doyle, Christie experimented with a whole gallery of other sleuths. Tuppence and Tommy Beresford, whose specialty was ferreting out espionage, made their debut in The Secret Adversary (1922); their insouciant, almost frivolous approach to detection provided a sharp contrast to that of Poirot.

The enigmatic, laconic Colonel Race appeared first in The Man in the Brown Suit (1924), but, since his principal sphere of activity was the colonies, he was used only sporadically thereafter. Superintendent Battle, stolid, dependable, and hardworking, came onto the scene in The Secret of Chimneys (1925) and later solved The Seven Dials Mystery (1929), but probably because of a lack of charisma was relegated to a subordinate role after that. Others who debuted during this experimental period were the weird pair of the other-worldly Harley Quin and his fussbudgety, oldmaidish "contact," Mr. Satterthwaite, and the ingenious Parker Pyne, who specialized not in solving murders, but in manipulating the lives of others so as to bring them happiness and/or adventure. Pyne was often fortunate enough to have the assistance of Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, the mystery novelist who bore an uncanny resemblance to her creator. The year 1926 was a watershed year for Christie.

It saw the publication of her first hugely successful novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in which the narrator is the murderer, a plot twist that provoked great controversy about the ethics of the mystery writer. It was also a year of personal tragedy: her mother died, and then she discovered that her husband was in love with another woman. She suffered a nervous breakdown and on December 6 disappeared from her home; subsequently her car was found abandoned in a chalk-pit. Ten days later, acting on a tip, police found her in a Harrogate hotel, where she had been staying the entire time, although registered under the name of the woman with whom her husband was having his affair. She claimed to have had amnesia, and the case was not pursued further. The divorce came two years later. In 1930 she married Sir Max Mallowan, a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and one of Britain's foremost archaeologists. She often accompanied him on his digs in Iraq and Syria and placed some of her novels in those countries. In Come, Tell Me How You Live (1946) she wrote a humorous account of some of her expeditions with her husband.

Also in 1930, writing under the penname of Mary Westmacott, she published Giant's Bread, the first of six romances, none of which showed distinction. In that same year in Murder at the Vicarage, undoubtedly the best-written Christie novel, she first presented Jane Marple, who became one of her favorite sleuths and showed up frequently thereafter. Miss Marple was one of those paradoxes in whom readers delight: behind the Victorian, tea-and-crumpets, crocheted-antimacassar facade was a mind coldly aware of the frailty of all human beings and the depravity of some. In the mid-1930s Christie began to produce novels that bore her unique stamp. In them she arranged a situation which was implausible, if not actually impossible, and into this unrealistic framework placed characters who acted realistically for the most realistic of motives.

In Murder in the Calais Coach (1934) the murder is done with the connivance of a dozen people; in And Then There Were None (1939) nine murderers are invited to an island to be dispatched by an ex-judge with an implacable sense of justice; in Easy to Kill (1939) four murders are committed in a miniscule town without any suspicions being aroused; in A Murder Is Announced (1950) the killer advertises in advance. Also interesting in these books is Christie's philosophy that it is quite acceptable to kill a killer, particularly one whose crime is a heinous one. In addition to her fiction, her archaeological reminiscences, the children's book Star over Bethlehem (1965), a collection of her poetry (1973), and her autobiography (1977), Christie authored 17 plays. Her own favorite was Witness for the Prosecution (1953), based on one of her novellas, but the public disagreed. The Mousetrap opened in London in 1952 and played there for over three decades, a run unparalleled in theater history.

Many of her mysteries were made into movies--And Then There Were None three times--with the most successful those in which Margaret Rutherford portrayed Miss Marple. In 1998, her play Black Coffee (1930) was adapted into a novel by Charles Osborne, with permission from Christie's literary executors. Named a Dame of the British Empire in 1971, Christie died on January 12, 1976. ---------------------------- Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, DBE (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976), mainly known as Agatha Christie, was an English crime fiction writer. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but is chiefly remembered for her 66 detective novels. Her work with these novels, particularly featuring detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple, have given her the title the 'Queen of Crime' and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre.

Christie has been called—by the Guinness Book of World Records, among others—the best-selling writer of books of all time, and the best-selling writer of any kind second only to William Shakespeare. An estimated one billion copies of her novels have been sold in English, and another billion in 103 other languages.[1] As an example of her broad appeal, she is the all-time best-selling author in France, with over 40 million copies sold in French (as of 2003) versus 22 million for Emile Zola, the nearest contender. Her stage play, The Mousetrap, holds the record for the longest run ever in London, opening at the Ambassadors Theatre on 25 November 1952, and as of 2007 is still running after more than 20,000 performances. In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's highest honor, the Grand Master Award, and in the same year, Witness for the Prosecution was given an Edgar Award by the MWA, for Best Play.

Most of her books and short stories have been filmed, some many times over (Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, 4.50 From Paddington), and many have been adapted for television, radio, video games and comics. In 1998, the control of the rights to most of the literary works of Agatha Christie passed to the company Chorion, when it purchased a majority 64% share in Agatha Christie Limited.[2] Famous Authors and Their Pseudonyms (Part Two) Famous Authors and Their Pseudonyms (Part Two) Topics: Legendary Authors , Literature , Book News The revelation that JK Rowling is the author behind the warmly received novel The Cuckoo's Calling has caused quite a stir! But Rowling is far from the first famous author to adopt a pseudonym; indeed, she joins a rich literary tradition of the pen name--illustrious authors like Charles Dickens and Mark Twain have also used noms de guerre. Today we'll explore twentieth-century authors who opted to publish under different names. Agatha Christie The famous creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple built quite a name for herself as a writer of mystery novels.

When Agatha Christie decided to try her hand at a different genre, she also decided to use a different name: Mary Westmacott. She wrote her first Westmacott novel, Giant's Bread, with a "rather guilty feeling," which she relished. Even though her real identity was discovered in 1949, Christie published two more Westmacott novels. In 1950, Christie was invited to attend a celebration of her work and said, "Thank you for asking me to meet Agatha Christie. If you don't mind, I am bringing my old friend Mary Westmacott with me." Eric Blair Though Eric Blair aspired to an authorial career, he didn't feel that he'd made a sufficient name for himself. When it came time to publish, he opted for a name that echoed his deep love of England: George Orwell . George is the patron saint of England, and in 1933 when Blair began publishing in New Adelphi, George V was the monarch of Great Britain. Orwell was the name of a river in Suffolk, and one of Blair's favorite spots in England. It was also the name of a village Blair had visited in Cambridge.

CS Lewis When noted author and theologian decided to turn his attention to verse, he also wanted to avoid damaging his reputation as a don at Oxford University. Thus, he published both Spirits in Bondage and Dymer under the name Clive Hamilton. He also published A Grief Observed pseudonymously, with the pen name NW Clerk. The work was so personal, he wanted to distance himself from it professionally. Edward Gorey Author and illustrator Edward Gorey published over 100 books, and he remains an incredibly popular figure among collectors of children's books. Gorey was incredibly fond of word games, especially anagrams, and he often adopted pseudonyms that were anagrams of his real name (such as Ogdred Weary). He wrote The Evil Garden and The Tuning Fork, which he claimed were translated from German, with the pen name Eduard Blutig. "Blutig" is German for "bloody," a synonym for "gory." Theodor Geisel Many people don't even know the real name of Dr. Seuss , whose whimsical illustrated children's books have become modern classics. But this wasn't even Geisel's first pen name!

In high school, Geisel frequently contributed "grinders" (one liners) to the school newspaper with the pseudonym Peter Pessimist. Soon after, he began using Theo Lesieg--spelling his last name backwards. When he began writing cartoons and other pieces for Judge, Geisel wanted to save his real name for the novel he planned to write and began using Dr. Theophrastus Seuss. Theophrastus was the name of a beloved stuffed dog, and Seuss was his mother's maiden name. Because Geisel published a variety of cartoons, essays, and stories that were much more adult in nature, it made sense for him to create a separate persona for his children's books. Stephen King When the news broke about JK Rowling, Stephen King almost immediately voiced his empathy for Rowling and her desire to publish under an unrecognized name. King himself has done the same thing, and descried it as "a blessed relief, to write in anonymity." King made a name for himself relatively early in his career, and he soon decided to publish under then name Richard Bachman. He used the name for four novels, but it wasn't too long before someone recognized the similarities between King's and Bachman's writing styles.

King observed that in the internet age, he'd probably be detected even more quickly. Dean Koontz Prolific author Dean Koontz has used multiple pen names throughout his career, though now these works have been reissued under his own name. Koontz identified two primary reasons for using a pen name. First, writers who publish more than one book per year are often dismissed by the critics. And second, authors who write outside their original genre often experience low sales, which can hurt their reputations. Koontz acquiesced to his publishers' requests for pseudonyms, and because he enjoyed writing in a variety of genres, he also ended up with a variety of pseudonyms. One more successful one was Owen West, under which Koontz published two bestselling novels. Michael Crichton It was as a student at Harvard Medical School that Michael Crichton began his writing career. By that time, he was already extremely tall--6 feet, 9 inches, to be exact. Thus he chose pseudonyms that played on this personal trait.

The first John Lange incorporates the German surname for "Long." Crichton also used Jeffrey Hudson, after Sir Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf from the court of the Queen Consort Henrietta Maria of England. Crichton recounts in Travels that he got to eavesdrop on doctors discussing the flaws of Andromeda Strain because they didn't know he was the author. Crichton also co-wrote Dealing with his brother Douglas using the name Michael Douglas. Crichton's mother provided a picture of the brothers together when they were very young to use on the book's dust jacket.

Agatha Christie, Mary Westmacott - AbeBooks Agatha Christie, Mary Westmacott Results (1 - 30) of 515 1 ISBN 10: 055335082X ISBN 13: 9780553350821 Used ISBN 10: 0515091200 ISBN 13: 9780515091205 Used Mass Market Paperback ISBN 10: 0515091200 ISBN 13: 9780515091205 Used Mass Market Paperback ISBN 10: 0515091200 ISBN 13: 9780515091205 Used Mass Market Paperback ISBN 10: 0515091200 ISBN 13: 9780515091205 Used Mass Market Paperback ISBN 10: 0515091200 ISBN 13: 97805150

91205 Used Mass Market Paperback ISBN 10: 0515091200 ISBN 13: 9780515091205 Used Mass Market Paperback ISBN 10: 0515091200 ISBN 13: 9780515091205 Used Mass Market Paperback ISBN 10: 0515091200 ISBN 13: 9780515091205 Used Mass Market Paperback mary Westmacott, A.k.a.

Agatha Christie Published by Dell, 1971 (1971) Used Christie, Agatha, writing as Mary Westmacott Published by HarperCollins (2009) ISBN 10: 000649949X ISBN 13: 9780006499497 Used Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: HarperCollins, 2009. Paperback. Book Condition: Good. Good condition is defined as: a copy that has been read but remains in clean condition. All of the pages are intact and the cover is intact and the spine may show signs of wear. The book may have minor markings which are not specifically mentioned. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day.

Bookseller Inventory # mon0006195308 Christie, Agatha, writing as Mary Westmacott Published by HarperCollins (2009) ISBN 10: 0006499481 ISBN 13: 9780006499480 Used Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: HarperCollins, 2009. Paperback. Book Condition: Good. Darkened tan to the page edges. Good condition is defined as: a copy that has been read but remains in clean condition. All of the pages are intact and the cover is intact and the spine may show signs of wear. The book may have minor markings which are not specifically mentioned. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day.

Bookseller Inventory # mon0006215422 ISBN 10: 0006499503 ISBN 13: 9780006499503 Used ISBN 10: 0877950571 ISBN 13: 9780877950578 Used ISBN 10: 0515093815 ISBN 13: 9780515093810 Used Mass Market Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Jove, 1988. Mass Market Paperback. Book Condition: Good. 189 pages; spine creasing, edge wear; This compelling novel by Agatha Christie, writing as Mary Westmacott, is the tale of lovely Isabella Charteris and the lessons she must learn as her world of grace and breeding ends with World War II.

Bookseller Inventory # 024273 Mary Westmacott -(also Known as Agatha christie) Published by Fontanta/Collins ISBN 10: 0006167225 ISBN 13: 9780006167228 Used Paperback ISBN 10: 0425068072 ISBN 13: 9780425068076 Used Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Berkley, 1984. Book Condition: Used. This Book is in Good Condition. Clean Copy With Light Amount of Wear. 100% Guaranteed. Summary: Dame Agatha Christie is the world's best-known mystery writer. Her books have sold over two billion copies worldwide and have been translated into 44 foreign languages. During a writing career that spanned more than half a century, she created two of the world's most famous detectives. Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple.

The author of 79 novels and short story collections, she was also an accomplished playwright--one of her 14 plays, The Mousetrap , is the longest-running play in history. She published six romantic novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott and wrote four non-fiction books, including an autobiography. Several of her books, including Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile , were made into hugely successful films. She died in 1976. Bookseller Inventory # ABE_book_usedgood_0425068072 Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Berkley, 1984. Book Condition: Used. This Book is in Good Condition. Clean Copy With Light Amount of Wear. 100% Guaranteed. Summary: Dame Agatha Christie is the world's best-known mystery writer. Her books have sold over two billion copies worldwide and have been translated into 44 foreign languages. During a writing career that spanned more than half a century, she created two of the world's most famous detectives. Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple.

The author of 79 novels and short story collections, she was also an accomplished playwright--one of her 14 plays, The Mousetrap , is the longest-running play in history. She published six romantic novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott and wrote four non-fiction books, including an autobiography. Several of her books, including Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile , were made into hugely successful films. She died in 1976. Bookseller Inventory # ABE_book_usedgood_0425068056 Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Berkley, 1984. Book Condition: Used. This Book is in Good Condition. Clean Copy With Light Amount of Wear. 100% Guaranteed. Summary: Dame Agatha Christie is the world's best-known mystery writer. Her books have sold over two billion copies worldwide and have been translated into 44 foreign languages. During a writing career that spanned more than half a century, she created two of the world's most famous detectives. Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple.

The author of 79 novels and short story collections, she was also an accomplished playwright--one of her 14 plays, The Mousetrap , is the longest-running play in history. She published six romantic novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott and wrote four non-fiction books, including an autobiography. Several of her books, including Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile , were made into hugely successful films. She died in 1976. Bookseller Inventory # ABE_book_usedgood_0425067920 Agatha Christie | Agatha Christie Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit During Agatha Christie's life, she had set up a private company, Agatha Christie Limited, to hold the rights to her works, and around 1959 she had also transferred her 278-acre home, Greenway Estate , to her daughter Rosalind .

In 1968, when Christie was almost 80 years old, she sold a 51% stake in Agatha Christie Limited (and therefore the works it owned) to Booker Books (better known as Booker Author's Division), a subsidiary of the British food and transport conglomerate Booker-McConnell (now Booker Group), the founder of the Booker Prize for literature, which later increased its stake to 64%. Agatha Christie Limited remains the owner of the worldwide rights for over 80 of Christie's novels and short stories, 19 plays, and nearly 40 TV films. After Christie's death in 1976, her remaining 36% share of the company was inherited by her daughter, Rosalind Hicks, who passionately preserved her mother's works, image, and legacy until her own death 28 years later. The family's share of the company allowed them to appoint 50% of the board and the chairman, and thereby to retain a veto over new treatments, updated versions, and republications of her works. In 1993, Hicks founded the Agatha Christie Society and became its first president.

In 2004 her obituary in The Telegraph commented that Hicks had been "determined to remain true to her mother's vision and to protect the integrity of her creations" and disapproved of "merchandising" activities. Upon Hicks' death, also at age 85 like her mother, on 28 October 2004, both this and the Greenway Estate passed to Christie's grandson, Matthew Pritchard. After his parents' deaths, Pritchard gifted Greenway - both the house and its contents - to the National Trust. Christie's family and family trusts, including Prichard, continue to own the remaining 36% stake in Agatha Christie Limited, and remain associated with the company. Prichard remains as the company's chairman, and also in his own right holds the copyright to some of his grandmother's later literary works (including The Mousetrap ). In 1998, Booker sold a number of its non-food assets to focus on its core business.

As part of that, its shares in Agatha Christie Limited (at the time earning £2.1m annual revenue) were sold for £10m to Chorion, a major international media company whose portfolio of well known authors' works also included the literary estates of Enid Blyton and Dennis Wheatley. However, in February 2012, Chorion found itself in financial difficulties some years after a Management buyout, and began to sell off their literary assets on the market, selling their stake in Christie’s estate (specifically, their 64% stake in Agatha Christie Limited) to the current owner Acorn Media UK (part of RLJ Entertainment, Inc. and the RLJ Companies, owned by American entrepreneur Robert L. Johnson) during that same month. As of 2014, media reports state that the BBC had acquired the exclusive television rights to Christie's works in the UK (previously associated with ITV) and plans with Acorn's co-operation to air new productions for the 125th anniversary of Christie's birth in 2015.

Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple Edit Agatha Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in 1920 and introduced the long-running character detective Hercule Poirot , who appeared in 30 of Christie's novels and 50 short stories. Her other well known character, Miss Marple , was introduced in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930, and was based on Christie's grandmother. During World War II , Christie wrote two novels intended as the last cases of these two great detectives, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, respectively. They were Curtain and Sleeping Murder . Both books were sealed in a bank vault for over thirty years, and were released for publication by Christie only at the end of her life, when she realised that she could not write any more novels. These publications came on the heels of the success of the film version of Murder on the Orient Express in 1974. Like Arthur Conan Doyle , Christie was to become increasingly tired of her detective, Poirot.

In fact, by the end of the 1930s, Christie confided to her diary that she was finding Poirot “insufferable”, and by the 1960s she felt that he was an "an ego-centric creep". However, unlike Conan Doyle, Christie resisted the temptation to kill her detective off while he was still popular. She saw herself as an entertainer whose job was to produce what the public liked, and what the public liked was Poirot. In contrast, Christie was fond of Miss Marple. It is however interesting to note that the Belgian detective’s titles outnumber the Marple titles by more than two to one. Poirot is the only fictional character to have been given an obituary in The New York Times , following the publication of C urtain 1975. Following the great success of Curtain, Christie gave permission for the release of Sleeping Murder sometime in 1976, but died in January 1976 before the book could be released.

This may explain some of the inconsistencies in the book with the rest of the Marple series — for example, Colonel Arthur Bantry, husband of Miss Marple's friend, Dolly , is still alive and well in Sleeping Murder (which, like Curtain, was written in the 1940s) despite the fact he is noted as having died in books that were written after but published before the posthumous release of Sleeping Murder in 1976 — such as, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side . It may be that Christie simply did not have time to revise the manuscript before she died. Miss Marple fared better than Poirot, since after solving the mystery in Sleeping Murder, she returns home to her regular life in St. Mary Mead . On an edition of Desert Island Discs in 2007, Brian Aldiss recounted how Agatha Christie told him that she wrote her books up to the last chapter, and then decided who the most unlikely suspect was. She would then go back and make the necessary changes to "frame" that person. Archaeology and Agatha Christie Christie had always had an interest in archaeology.

-Christie expressing her interest in archaeology, a passage from An Autobiography (London, 1984), p. 389 On a trip to the excavation site at Ur in 1930, she met her future husband, Sir Max Mallowan , a distinguished archaeologist, but her fame as an author far surpassed his fame in archaeology. Prior to meeting Mallowan, Christie had not had any extensive brushes with archaeology, but once the two married they made sure to only go to sites where they could work together. -Christie wishing for an earlier exposure to Archaeology, a passage from An Autobiography (1984), p.

546 While accompanying Mallowan on countless archaeological trips (spending up to 3–4 months at a time in Syria and Iraq at excavation sites at Ur, Ninevah, Tell Arpachiyah, Chagar Bazar, Tell Brak, and Nimrud), Christie not only wrote novels and short stories, but also contributed work to the archaeological sites, more specifically to the archaeological restoration and labeling of ancient exhibits which includes tasks such as cleaning and conserving delicate ivory pieces, reconstructing pottery, developing photos from early excavations which later led to taking photographs of the site and its findings, and taking field notes. So as to not influence the funding of the archaeological excavations, Christie would always pay for her own board and lodging and her travel expenses, and supported excavations as an anonymous sponsor. After WW2, she chronicled her time in Syria with fondness in Come, Tell Me How You Live . Anecdotes, memories, funny episodes, are strung in a rough timeline, with more emphasis on eccentric characters, lovely scenery, than factual accuracy.

Archaeological influences found in her writing Edit Many of the settings for Agatha Christie’s books were directly inspired by the many archaeological field seasons spent in the Middle East on the sites managed by her second husband Max Mallowan. Her time spent at the many locations featured in her books is very apparent by the extreme detail in which she describes them. One such site featured in her books is the temple site of Abu Simbel in her book Death on the Nile, as well as the great detail in which she describes life at the dig site in her book Murder in Mesopotamia. Characters Of the characters in her books, Christie has often showcased the archaeologist and experts in Middle Eastern cultures and artifacts. Most notably are the characters of Dr. Eric Leidner in Murder in Mesopotamia , Signor Richetti in Death on the Nile , and many minor characters in They Came to Baghdad were archaeologists. More indirectly, Christie’s famous character of Hercule Poirot can be compared to an archaeologist in his detailed scrutiny of all facts both large and small. Cornelius Holtorf, an academic archaeologist, describes an archaeologist as a detective as one of the key themes of archaeology in popular culture.

He describes an archaeologist as a professional detective of the past who has the ability to reveal secrets for the greater of society. Holtorf’s description of the archaeologist as a detective is very similar to Christie’s Poirot who is hugely observant and is very careful to look at the small details as they often impart the most information. Many of Christie’s detective characters show some archaeological traits through their careful attention to clues and artifacts alike. Miss Marple , another of Christie’s most famous characters, shares these characteristics of careful deduction though the attention paid to the small clues. Spiritual and Religious Christie’s life within the archaeological world not only shaped her settings and characters for her books but also in the issues she highlights. One of the stronger influences is her love of the mystical and mysterious. Many of Christie’s books and short stories both set in the Middle East and back in England have a decidedly otherworldly influence in which religious sects, sacrifices, ceremony, and seances play a part. Such stories include “The Hound of Death” and “The Idol House of Astarte".

This theme was greater strengthened by Christie’s time spent in the Middle East where she was consistently surrounded by the religious temples and spiritual history of the towns and cities they were excavating in Mallowan’s archaeological work. Travel as Adventure During Christie and Mallowan's time in the Middle East, along with their time spent among the many tombs, temples, and museums, there was also a large amount of time spent traveling to and from Mallowan's sites. The travelling involved in the archaeology had a large influence on Christie's writing, which is often reflected as some type of transportation playing a part in her murderer’s schemes. The large amount of travel done by Christie and Mallowan has not only made for a great writing theme, as shown in her famous novel: Murder on the Orient Express , but also tied into the idea of archaeology as an adventure that has become so important in today’s popular culture as described by Cornelius Holtorf in his book Archaeology is a Brand. Popular novels with heavy archaeological influences They Came to Baghdad was inspired by Christie's own trips to Baghdad with Mallowan, and involves an archaeologist as the heroine's love interest.

Miscellaneous Edit From 8 November 2001 - 24 March 2002, an exhibit named Agatha Christie and Archaeology: Mystery in Mesopotamia, which presented a fascinating look at the secret life of Agatha Christie and the influences of archaeology in her life and works ran in the British Museum. In 1971 Agatha Christie was made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire . She and her second husband, Sir Max Mallowan, were one of the rare married couples to be titled, each in their own right. In Popular Culture Edit Poster for 'Agatha' Christie has been portrayed on a number of occasions in film and television. Several biographical programs have been made, such as the 2004 BBC television programme entitled Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures , in which she is portrayed by Olivia Williams, Anna Massey, and Bonnie Wright. Christie has also been portrayed fictionally.

Some of these have explored and offered accounts of Christie's disappearance in 1926, including the 1979 film Agatha (with Vanessa Redgrave , where she sneaks away to plan revenge against her husband) and the Doctor Who episode The Unicorn and the Wasp (with Fenella Woolgar , her disappearance being the result of her suffering a temporary breakdown due to a brief psychic link being formed between her and an alien). Others, such as 1980 Hungarian film, Kojak Budapesten (not to be confused with the 1986 comedy by the same name) create their own scenarios involving Christie's criminal skill. In the 1986 TV play, Murder by the Book, Christie herself (Dame Peggy Ashcroft) murdered one of her fictional-turned-real characters, Poirot. The heroine of Liar-Soft's 2008 visual novel Shikkoku no Sharnoth: What a Beautiful Tomorrow, Mary Clarissa Christie, is based on the real-life Christie. Christie features as a character in Gaylord Larsen's Dorothy and Agatha and The London Blitz Murders' by Max Allan Collins.

Christie has also been parodied on screen, such as in the film Murder by Indecision, which featured the character "Agatha Crispy".

Question: Which_famons writer also wrote novels using the name Mary Westmacott?
Answer: AGATHA CHRISTIE